Modern software applications often include extremely large quantities of code. In order to develop such applications in a timely, efficient manner, it may be helpful or necessary to utilize a plurality of software developers to compose, correct, maintain, and/or update the code. Such software developers are each tasked with editing assigned or selected portions of the code, in order to perform required or desired edits. In order to increase a speed, efficiency, and volume of software edits, and thereby increase a quality and availability of the software application, techniques have been developed that enable two or more developers to work on different portions of the same code at the same time, e.g., in parallel.
Consequently, it may occur that two or more developers may desire to access and edit an overlapping or identical portion of the code during an overlapping time frame. In such scenarios, it is typically necessary to permit a first developer to proceed with code edits, while temporarily blocking a second developer from doing so, until the first developer is finished.
This approach ensures code consistency, and prevents redundant and/or contradictory changes. In practice, however, this approach may impart considerable delay and inconvenience to the software developers, and to the software development as a whole, since, for example, developers may have to wait for unacceptable periods of time to perform edits.